⚠️ Spoiler alert: This interview discusses Crew Girl Season 1.
When Thomas Cadrot taped his audition for Netflix’s Crew Girl, he felt good about the work. What he didn’t feel good about were his chances. “My first reaction, honestly, was they’re gonna give this to a white dude,” he says. “When’s the last time you’ve seen a brother do rowing?”
He got the part. In the Netflix YA drama from showrunner Vivian Lin, which premiered Sept. 10 and has already been renewed for a second season, Cadrot plays Coach Matt Hayden, the steady, sharp-tongued mentor to Teagan Tao (Miku Martineau), a young woman who talks her way onto an elite boys’ rowing crew. Produced by Blue Ant Studios and shot on Vancouver Island, the series has become an unexpected introduction to a sport most viewers had never clocked, including Cadrot, who had never set foot in a rowing shell before training with an Olympian ahead of production.
Born in France and raised between Miami, Puerto Rico and Venezuela before settling in Vancouver, Cadrot didn’t grow up in an industry family. His father was a police officer and his mother an accountant. His path to acting began in college, during a sick day spent in a movie marathon. Night classes and theater followed, then an acting boot camp in Los Angeles, then a steady climb through television and film, including NBC’s sci-fi drama Debris and Lifetime’s Merry Liddle Christmas trilogy opposite Kelly Rowland, whom he credits with teaching him how to carry himself on set.
In this conversation, Cadrot talks about the “silent rejection” that defines an actor’s life, the real-life friendships behind the Crew Girl cast, recommending Hana Huggins to play his on-screen daughter, and why Martineau is “wise beyond her years.” He also reflects on growing up watching Denzel Washington, why he believes European film still trails North America in portraying Black and Arab characters, and the careers he’s watching now, from Michael B. Jordan to Aaron Pierre.
Next up: Crew Girl Season 2, an indie drama about veterans with PTSD, and a new Netflix YA series he can’t name yet but promises to drop hints about.
Crew Girl Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.